Sister Cities of Durham recently presented the Dorothy Borden Annual Volunteer Award to two leaders of the Kostroma, Russia City Committee. Pictured (from left) are Ann Evangelisto, Kostroma Committee; Anne Berkley who received the award for her work with the Kostroma Committee for many years; Dot Borden, Sister Cities Board member and founding president; Margie Harrison, Kostroma Committee; Dottie Osborn, who also received the award for her many years of service with the Kostroma Committee; and Brady Surles, president of Sister Cities.

Submitted | Sister Cities of Durham

The Sister Cities International Quilt project has been on display in the lobby of City Hall, and at the Durham County Library. The quilts from our Sister Cities will continue to be displayed at various events connected with Sister Cities of Durham. The quilts were produced by our Sister Cities from around the world. They are representative of the cultural collaboration between Durham and the world as we seek to develop mutual understanding and cooperation, and expand our "people to people" connections. Our Sister City Quilts (from left): Kostroma, Russia; Kunshan, China; Zhuzhou, China; Arusha, Tanzania; Toyama, Japan; and Durham, United Kingdom.

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Sister Cities recently held its annual meeting and presented awards to members for outstanding work with the organization. Receiving the Dorothy Borden Annual Volunteer Award for 2013 were Anne Berkley and Dottie Osborn, who both have been long-time active members of the Kostroma City Committee. Anne and Dottie have organized trips to our Russian Sister City for librarians and school children and have hosted numerous visitors from Kostroma.

The international quilts from each of our Sister Cities were also on display at the meeting and were featured at a program at the Durham County Library. Each city designed and produced a vertical quilt which displayed significant scenes from their city. The quilts are all 18” by 33” with the sky as the one common feature.

The quilts feature such diverse items as the Maasi warriors and Mount Meru on the Arusha quilt, Durham cathedral and coal mining on the Durham quilt, the Volga river and the Ipatyevsky monastery on the Kostroma quilt, snow covered Mount Tateyamat and dancers on the Toyama quilt, Emperor Yan and the modern electrical trains on the Zhuzhou quilt, and the canals and the Fuan Bridge in Zhouzhuang on the Kunshan quilt.

The Mayor of Kostroma wrote about the quilt project, “I am confident that despite the significant distance separating us, this quilt project by Sister Cities is an important phase of our cultural collaboration and at the same time emphasizes that Kostroma and Durham, NC (and the other sister cities) are cities that devote their attention to art and all the humanitarian values of mankind.”
This program about the international quilts from our Sister Cities is one of four such programs presented in the Humanities and Adult Programs at the Durham County Library. Presented by the Kostroma City Committee, our first program was last January and focused on Russian literature.
This fall we started with the program on our international quilts on Oct. 19. Sister Cities will present two more programs this fall:

-- Nov. 2 at 3 p.m., the Zhuzhou City Committee presents a program on Chinese Opera (introduction to costumes, music, instruments, etc.)

-- Nov. 16 at 3 p.m., the Arusha City Committee presents a program on the Arusha Photography Project in cooperation with the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. These programs are free and open to the public.